Week 19: Electrical

Stephen dug a trench with a "trencher" (practical if uninspired name.) It's like an enormous chainsaw. Then we put thick electrical cable in PVC pipe, fastened the sections of pipe together, and dropped it in the trench. Stephen attached an electrical box at the pole, and another in the shop, and attached the cable to it at both ends - we will have buried lines. Then we started putting in outlet boxes upstairs. We have not gotten them all in, but we got most of them. They don't have any actual outlets, switches or lights in them - they are being put in primarily to allow the installation of the insulation. The insulation covers up the wiring, so the electrical has to be done first.

Week 18: Siding

Between three snowstorms (two blizzards,) Three illnesses (including Type A Influenza,) and Stephen working at his job on weekends, not much has been done. The work completed could've been done in a productive weekend, so I'll compress it. We put up siding on the entire back of the house and most of the front. To reach over the garage hoods will require the boom lift. We bought a scissor-type tool to cut the cement board, and it's AWESOME.

Cleanup

It was Christmas, so we held off on the big stuff this weekend and took time out to put on temporary carriage doors, install door hardware, and clean and sort the inside of the shop/garage. Now we can work inside and store stuff without fear of theft! Awesome.

Week 17: Siding

We put up siding. It is pre-primed HardiePlank. It is scored with a box cutter and then it breaks at the score. Very easy to work with. We got the gable ends done up about as far as could be done without the boom lift. The job took a great deal more time than expected largely due to the time lost marking lines and studs, moving scaffolding, etc.

Week 16: Trim Saga Finale

Stephen put up misc. trim, roofing and flashing to get us ready for siding next week. We still couldn't get the boom lift to do the gable trim, so it will have to be done at the same time as the top gable siding.

Much of the weekend was spent trying to locate siding and discussing options.

I primed half of the rafters that will remain exposed in the apartment.

Week 15: Thanksgiving

For the four day weekend, we had planned to get a boom lift to get into the gables to put up trim, but they didn't have any available. Instead, we put up the eyebrows, primed and tar-papered them, and Stephen trimmed out the cornices and soffits on the non-gabled sides of the house. The soffits are a foot deep, and the trim extends a foot below the soffit. The trim detail (dentil blocks, etc) will be added later. Stephen also added a pediment hood over the apartment door entrance.

We got the door hardware for the apartment entry from Ebay this week, some cool old handmade wrought iron stuff.

The trim has taken much longer than expected, and it's getting cold here. It looks like we'll be finishing the exterior about four weeks behind schedule.

Week 14: Door Trim and Eyebrows

On week 14, Stephen built the door trim, including the doorways that don't yet have doors. He finished up the cornice returns.

He also built the half-elliptical hoods for the carriage doors (eyebrows.) I built none, but designed both the look and the construction method. Two arches were cut out of plywood for each set of carriage doors, then the plywoods were connected by pieces of 2"X6" and covered on the top with OSB with kerfs cut into the top to allow it to bend. They will eventually be covered with copper.